Mexico’s Caribbean coast is facing an extraordinary sargassum crisis, with huge amounts of the brown seaweed covering beaches across Cancún, Playa del Carmen and Tulum. In Quintana Roo, authorities have already removed more than 105,000 tonnes of sargassum in 2026, exceeding last year’s record of 92,783 tonnes. Earlier estimates suggested that around 119,000 tonnes could reach the coast this year, but the continuing arrivals are putting even that projection under pressure. Scientists say the explosion is linked to several factors, including warmer ocean temperatures, nutrient-rich runoff from land and changing ocean conditions, which are creating favourable conditions for the seaweed to grow and spread across the Caribbean.
For Mexico, this is no longer simply a problem of cleaning beaches before tourists arrive. When large piles of sargassum remain on the shore, they begin to decompose, producing a strong rotten-egg smell and affecting beaches, marine ecosystems and tourism businesses. The Mexican Navy and local authorities are using collection boats, barriers and beach-cleaning equipment to intercept the seaweed before it reaches the shore, while scientists warn that the growing scale of the problem requires more than constant removal. The crisis is also raising a bigger environmental question: if warming oceans and increasing nutrient pollution are helping fuel these massive blooms, how long can Mexico continue treating the seaweed as a beach-cleaning problem rather than addressing the conditions creating it? More